by Tom Pelissero, USA TODAY Sports

by Tom Pelissero, USA TODAY Sports

USA TODAY Sports recruited 11 prospects to chronicle their journey to the NFL Draft. Today's entry is from speedy Florida Atlantic cornerback Keith Reaser, who tore his left ACL in a game in October and got stunning news on his recovery at last month's NFL scouting combine.

The second day, they do all of your medical evaluations. You go in different rooms with different teams' doctors. I go into the first room â?? Colts, Vikings and a couple other teams â?? and they checked my MRI. They checked my knee and they told me everything was fine. I go into the second room of doctors and they check my MRI â?¦ and they think that my ACL tore again.

This is crazy. At this point, I can't even believe it. Different doctors came up and checked my knee and told me it felt a little loose. At this point, I'm just like, "Wow, man." So, I just walked out. A couple different doctors tried to talk to me â?? the Steelers' doctor and the Dolphins' doctor. I was contemplating going home from the combine or if I should stay and finish things out.

I called my mom. I called my agent, who was trying to figure out what was going on, so he was calling and talking to different doctors and trying to get an understanding. They encouraged me to stay and finish it out, show mental toughness. The day after I got the news, I put up 22 bench reps of 225 pounds â?? tied for the best among all the cornerbacks.

Even at the combine, I was feeling great. I was talking to some of the doctors about whether they'd clear me medically to the run the 40-yard dash. I told them I wanted to run it. I've been running great. I thought I could have run as fast as all of the corners there, from looking at the times. I would've never thought this was all happening again.

I left Indianapolis on Tuesday and I flew to Pensacola on Wednesday to meet with Dr. James Andrews. He got my MRI and evaluated and explained to me exactly what happened. I had a graft that's from another person â?? a cadaver â?? and my body was rejecting the graft, the new ACL. So, basically, it was deteriorating and breaking down, which is what they saw on my MRI. It's something that's very rare, but I guess it does occur.

On that Thursday, Feb. 27, I had the surgery, with a graft from my own patellar tendon this time, and it was back to ground zero. I'm going to rehab and just start over again. From talking to Dr. Andrews and other doctors, it wasn't a matter of me pushing too hard â?? it was just the fact that my body was fighting off the graft like a foreign substance. My body didn't take to the foreign ligament that they put in.

I thought the first ACL tear came at the worst possible time. This one is even worse timing. It's crazy. That first day when I found out, I was really down. I walked off by myself for a couple hours to clear my head. But you can't waste time feeling sorry for yourself. It's definitely tough to start the whole process over again. But I've just been trying to think positive and stay focused.

At this point, I have no idea what's going to happen. I'm hoping a team will take a chance and draft me or sign me or something. There's no way to know for sure. But I try not to put a whole lot of thought into that. All I can focus on is getting healthy. That's the first step.